THE NEW ALFA
To one of our rf experts, isnt 2w slightly dangerous? Also, I understand 2w is 4x 500mw (awus036h) but what kind of real world signal increases are we looking at here?
Can backtrack even set tx power to 2000mw?
Also what would be the radiated power at the antenna, using an 18db yaggi

12-30-2009, 05:04 AM

alacrityathome

Killa,

Well, I would like to test one. I have the earlier 036H unit and use it often.

Some comments:

...Looks like it does have higher power but hard to tell the exact comparison since the specs are apples and oranges (different conditions).

...More important is the sensitivity...which measures the receiver capability. It does no good to increase the Tx power if you can not "see" or hear the AP.
On sensitivity, it looks about the same....so, not a clear benefit. On my 036H, once I "see" an AP on airodump-ng I can usually bump up the Tx power to connect.

...The capability to set the Tx power on the Alfa exists on kernels < 2.6.31 but was lost on the 2.6.31. So, dependent on the kernel used in BT, you may or may not have TX power setting capability.

...Yes, the higher the TX Power...the higher the health risk. Separate yourself from the antenna....since power decreases by the inverse of the distance squared.

...Actual power transmitted depends on many things (loss of cable and antenna as well as the Tx from the unit.....which depends on the notes above).

It won't inject with BT4 out of the box, because as we can see it the Awus036nh has a Ralink RT3070 chipset which is actually not working in monitor & injection. You can try this: Tutorial how to install Ralink RT3070 drivers for injection on Ubuntu(use google to translate, it's in french), it may work with Backtrack.

Thanks for the reply M1ck3y. I was not asking if it injects out of the box, I'm interested if it injects at all because I'm in doubt to buy it or not. I don't understand french but as far as I understood from the Google translation of the thread that you provided it works well in both injecting and monitoring, can you please confirm it?
Thank you in advance for your help. :)

02-11-2010, 07:03 PM

M1ck3y

Yes, that's it, you need first to install Ralink rt2800 (USB) support (EXPERIMENTAL) driver following the tutorial, and both monitoring and injection should work fine.

02-11-2010, 11:27 PM

strasharo

Awesome :D, that's the info that I needed. Thanks a lot for the information, M1ck3y! :)

02-26-2010, 09:06 AM

sanketsk

I baught the 2watt alfa adaptor, and as compared to gsky 500mw the performance is very poor and disappointing.
With Gsky 500mw i get the signal strength of 80%+-5% with 16dbi yagi antenna and with 2watt alfa adaptor i get only 18% signal with 16dbi yagi antenna.(Tried every thing but no luck.

well... I am going to say this. I myself have both the AWUS036nh (2000mW) and the AWUS050NH (500mW).

for the AWUS036nh (2000mW) I use the Ralink RT3070 driver for internet connectivity in linux, and for great monitoring and injection support I use rt2800usb driver from compat-wireless for both (check this HOWTO by jano - or u can use my HOWTO too, either/or will explain compat-wireless usage...) -- both AWUS036nh and AWUS050nh work with compat-wireless driver for injection/monitoring, remember the rt2x00 drivers are still experimental.

I use the following operating systems with BOTH above listed adapters = backtrack 4 final, arch linux, slackware 13, and windows 7. I would definitely NOT call either of these 2 adapters "useless waste[s] of money" :eek:

well... I am going to say this. I myself have both the (2000mW) and the (500mW).

for the AWUS036nh (2000mW) I use the Ralink RT3070 driver for internet connectivity in linux, and for great monitoring and injection support I use rt2800usb driver from compat-wireless for both (check this by jano - or u can use my too, either/or will explain compat-wireless usage...) -- both AWUS036nh and AWUS050nh work with compat-wireless driver for injection/monitoring, remember the rt2x00 drivers are still experimental.

I use the following operating systems with BOTH above listed adapters = backtrack 4 final, arch linux, slackware 13, and windows 7. I would definitely NOT call either of these 2 adapters "useless waste[s] of money" :eek: